City Council to renege on decision reached with GPL

Nov 24, 2009 News

Following a meeting between the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) and the Georgetown City Council at the weekend, a mutual decision was made between the two entities to exchange cheques with a view to putting an end to either companies’ indebtedness to each other.

Council in session yesterday

At the municipality’s statutory meeting yesterday, it was disclosed that the municipal team, which was led by Acting Town Clerk, Yonette Pluck-Cort, had accepted a proposal by GPL to waive all interest accumulated on the taxes owed by the power company.

According to the Town Clerk, the amount to be waived is somewhere in the vicinity of $517M, leaving the power company with a balance of about $295M.

GPL had initially stated its unwillingness to pay interest on the taxes it owes. However, at Saturday’s meeting, Pluck-Cort said that the GPL team headed by Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, changed that position and ceded to the fact that it owed the municipality in excess of $700M.

The Town Clerk said, yesterday, that the power company’s debt includes the new power plant at Kingston on which taxes are due. The municipal team, on the other hand, accepted and even committed to pay a total of $624M inclusive of interest to the power company.

Pluck-Cort revealed, further, that it was accepted by both parties to have the cheques be exchanged within 24 hours.

But according to Councillor Junior Garrett, the municipality should not have negotiated under duress. “Let them put back the lights then we can talk. There should have been an equal exchange of $624M and then we could start afresh,” Garrett insisted.

“It is unconscionable for GPL to make such a request (to waive $517M),” said a despondent Councillor Gerald Agard. According to Agard, “If we are sure about our position we should not give any concession to GPL.”

“We have to stop this nonsense, imagine they cut off the electricity to the pumps and if there was heavy rainfall it could have flooded the place. That is stupid…We have to be firm,” Agard passionately stressed.

Councillor Patricia Chase-Green highlighted the cash-strapped status of the municipality, even as she pointed to the fact that GPL and the municipality are not on a level “playing field” thus no exchange of cheques should be engaged.

She however underscored that there is a need for municipal officers to operate in a more professional manner otherwise people will continue to treat the City Council with disrespect. The deliberations continued with Councillor Eon Andrews who expressed his concern about the municipal’s team which was tasked with negotiating with GPL on Saturday.

According to Andrews, “I am not too confident that we were well represented. We must not settle for a trade off, the decision with GPL should be equitable.”

As such, the proposed move by the municipality is to inform the power company that it has not concluded consideration of the recommendations arrived at, at the meeting on Saturday. In the mean time, too, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, acting in the capacity of Mayor, speculated that the council would have a few more days to complete a report detailing what occurred at the meeting as efforts are made to seek legal advice into the matter.

GPL, last week Monday, sought to disconnect the electricity connection from several municipal buildings including City Hall, the abattoir, the municipal health clinics and other facilities due to the municipality’s failure to pay off its debt.

However, electricity has been restored to most of the disconnected facilities with the exception of City Hall, the municipal health centre in Albouystown and the East Ruimveldt Day Care Centre.

As part of an agreement the two entities had made some years ago, the municipality was tasked with paying GPL a total of $7M per month. The municipality however reneged on this agreement after making the recommended payment in October last year.